AR Display for Astronauts

2x national finalists in the annual NASA SUITS Challenge

TIMEFRAME

Sept - May 2025

Sept - May 2024

Sept - May 2023

ROLE

Chief Designer

UI/UX Team Lead

UI/UX Designer

TOOLS

Figma, Illustrator, Magic Leap 2

DISCIPLINES

Design systems, Usability testing, Project management

The Problem

01

How might we design a streamlined process to execute mission-critical tasks, helping astronauts overcome the challenges of safely navigating the moon ?

Imagine you are an astronaut on a spacewalk. You made the decision to explore that ominous crater. Mission control alert: your oxygen level is nearing 0%. You panic a little. Moondust slips out of your gloves. You need to get out of there, but you’re stranded at the edge of a 5-meter crater on the South Pole of the moon.

Human error accounts for approximately 70% of accidents in high-risk domains according to NASA’s Human Factors group. We can’t afford to lose anyone braving the new frontier.

Project Timeline

Mission

For the third year in a row, I am competing in NASA’s Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (SUITS) to design and develop a user interface for NASA astronauts to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars. Extravehicular activities (EVA), or spacewalks, play a vital role in these missions and the pursuit of deeper space exploration.

Leadership: Su Hyun Ahn (PM), Linlin Yu (Chief Designer), Danielle Kim (Chief Dev), Jason Silva (Chief Dev)
Design: Anna Wang, Nina Chang, Anthony Zhang, Alayka Seputra, Waverly Huang, Anika Gupta, Catherine Huang, Rumei Zha, Ariana Kim, Kian Park, Eldoris Cai, Zhenmi Tang, Sheryl Lee, Haoxuan Huang, Ava Maghsoodlou, Anushka Parikh, Bennett Graff, Ella Goodman, Mia Haake, Olivia Petrarch, Jin Gu, Sandy Hong, Chahek Bansal, Richa Lin
Dev: Seik Oh, Ryan Lee, Roger de Mello Koch, Lin Ning Kung, Feiyue Zhang, Ahad Bashir, Shivam Higorani, Hongwei Liao, Taylor McMillon, Wilson Vo, Yue Zhou, Haohan Wen, David Man
Faculty: Prof. Michael Lye
Leadership: Michael Wang (PM), Keya Shah (Chief Designer), Martin Ma (Chief Dev)
Design: Linlin Yu (Web Lead), Sunjoo Park (AR Lead), Anika Gupta, Alayka Seputra, Anthony Zhang, Waverly Huang, Elaine Zhang, Richard Cheng, Amy Ai, Anna Wang, Nina Chang, Kiran Mukherjee, Sheldon You
Dev: Seik Oh, Jason Silva, Ryan Lee, Jamie Chen, Julius Beberman, Mandy He, Jiayi Fan, Feiyue Zhang, Zijing Xu, Yixuan Liu
Faculty: Prof. Michael Lye
Leadership: Jessica Young, Michael Wang, Ashley Fan
Design: Linlin Yu, Keya Shah, Ryan Lee, Bill Xi, Pei-Jung Hsieh, Dong Yoon Shin, Bryce Yao
Dev: George Xu, Danielle Kim, Martin Ma, Jamie Chen, Julius Beberman
Faculty: Prof. Michael Lye

Meet the Team!

Skye Ray, NASA Evaluator

Stakeholders

Our AR program is built to help NASA design evaluators assuming the role of an astronaut. Evaluators will test our program in a simulated environment called the Rock Yard, which mimics conditions on the moon.

Why Augmented Reality?

Interfaces displayed in AR can provide real-time data directly in astronauts’ fields of view. This includes navigation paths, geological points of interest, or hazard warnings. This reduces fear and removes the need to consult separate devices, allowing astronauts to stay focused on the following tasks:

Navigation

Guides user across the lunar surface, avoiding hazards.

Lunar Sampling

Shows scientific info of lunar geology picked up during EVA.

Rover Commanding

Monitors the autonomous rover to survey moon surface.

Egress

Prepares suit to transition from pressurized homebase onto the moon.

Main Goals

02

Show less information, more confirmation.

Our previous interfaces required tediously tapping buttons for access to info, which overwhelmed users and blocked their vision during testing. However, the previous year’s research helped us start off strong.

Design with physical limitations in mind.

The lunar landscape limits the ability to walk. "The current-generation suits are not designed for tasks requiring repeated bending or kneeling, causing astronauts to adopt awkward postures that increase the risk of injury during extended extravehicular activities." A HUD shouldn’t be an added burden.

James N.

Former Astronaut

Steve S.

Retired Astronaut

Peter S.

Geological Sciences

Jonathan L.

Cartographer

Isabel T.

UX Designer

Alejandro R.

VR/UX Specialist

Jim H.

Geological Sciences

James R.

Planetary Sciences

Minimize life or death scenarios, and always have a backup ready.

Confidence drives decisions in a life-or-death situation. I studied previous interviews with eight specialists and formed three main insights:

“What’s closer to the user is more important, which means it should be higher in the visual hierarchy”
-Romero
“Be as minimal as you can. It’s not great for all controls to disappear [on the AR display], but it can help with organization”
-Levy
“With bulky gloves, there's no tactile feedback”
-Swanson
“The main challenge is the gloves because they are airtight and large, so mobility is tough”
-Torron
“Use bigger hand movements!”
-Romero
“A procedure list and suit status are necessary”
-Torron
“A checklist relies on memorization and the current one looks like a poorly designed book”
-Newman

Prototyping

03

I learned how to write effective callouts on our designs and create a clickable prototype so developers can better understand our 3D decisions through our 2D lens.

01 Sketches

“How do we design a moving display in a 3D space?” Draw it on paper and hold it at arms length as you walk.

02 User Flows

“How do we divide work but ensure a linear sequence for the user? Brainstorm key features in 4 teams & regroup.

03 Wireframes

“How do we validate our ideas to user testers and devs?” Lay out lo-fi frames into one clickable wireframe.

04 Clickable Prototype

“How do we make a minimum viable product?” Iterate for 3 months and implement hi-fi design into Unity.

Usability testing

04

We conducted usability research by asking college faculty to walk through our clickable prototype. We asked them to “think out loud” and had to intervene/skip tasks due to a lack of briefing on the simulation. We were gathering feedback from complete beginners of AR technology so it was impossible to have them pretend to be an astronaut on the first try, but their pain points regarding UI elements were unanimous.

Matthew B.

Senior Critic, RISD Industrial Design

Cheeny C-R.

Assistant Professor, RISD

Leah B.

Assistant Professor, RISD

Main Insights

“I don’t know what’s real and not real…Am I supposed to click on this?”
-Bird
“What’s the red triangle? Warning? Arrow? Volcano?”
-Celebrado-Royer
“It would help to merge ROVER command into the navigation map, since both you and the vehicle are navigating”
-Bird
“The key thing is about making the buttons consistent in word and icon choice to make it easily understandable every time”
-Celebrado-Royer
“It’s difficult to see the white icons. There’s so many”
-Beeferman
“Icons have no outline. Words are too small, line weight is too thin. Warning signs & top right notifications are too big and block my view”
-Bird

“The symbols aren’t exactly intuitive. I need a tooltip.”

“How do I keep track of what I need to do next?”

Lo-Fi to Hi-Fi

05

Below is our High-Fidelity Prototype!

I designed for AR

I worked with two designers and two developers to implement Geo Sampling. Throughout the year, I learned to create Figma assets, reviewed the accessibility with developers, made revisions to usability, and uploaded them into Unity.

I also designed to support AR

I led a subteam of 4 designers and worked with two developers to implement a mission control dashboard to support the astronauts out on the field. This was a high-level web application that consolidated every task the EV had to undertake, keeping track of EVA progress.

Task Management

Map Obstacle and POI

Repair Assistance

Geo Photo and Voice Recording

Egress/Ingress

Design System

2023-2024

2022-2023

User Testing

06

“It’s very finnicky”

To extract errors in our design and code, we conducted in-environment testing called “Human-In-The-Loop (HITL)” at two local state parks to simulate the moon environment.

Testing color contrast & font size.
Mimicking the astronaut on uneven terrain.
Both designers & developers making refinements after trying on the headset.
Going over errors in development.
Testing in a pitch black environment with extreme light sources.
Using car headlights to provide harsh lighting.

“I wish there were backup options for when things fail”

My team and I were invited to Houston to test & present our design at Johnson Space Center from May 18th to the 23rd.

Rover

Rock scanner

UIA panel

TESTING
On-site testing was conducted at the JSC Rock Yard. Testing was sectioned into briefing, testing, & debriefing.
TESTING
Our design successfully loaded in the HoloLens! Team member Danielle Kim guides Skye Ray through the 1st procedure.
DEBRIEFING
Our pain points include lack of confirmation buttons, button and info differentiation, and backup options for vital actions.
BRIEFING
The developers connect to the telemetry stream to view live feedback in our design. When a switch is flipped we get a notif!
BRIEFING
As one of five participants in the 1-week marathon, I revamped the design and prepared our exit pitch to panelists.
BRIEFING
Kelly Mann is equipped with our high-beam lights, a piece of handmade hardware that assists the user during testing.
BRIEFING
Team member Danielle Kim teaches evaluator Kelly Mann the action that corresponds to our palm menu feature.